“Henry and I found a box of my dad’s junk buried in the garden at the end of last summer.”

“This was your dad’s?”

“Yeah. Well, I think so. It was in this metal box that had a ton of other stuff that I know was his. I’d never seen it before, though. I figured he won it off one of his buddies at the factory or something.”

Tamara hesitated. “Maybe. But…” She stretched out her hand, the reverse side of the coin facing me. “Look at that.”

I peered at the nine engraved circles again. Looking more closely, I realized one of them was actually a star, not a circle. The other eight had oblong rings coming out of them, stretching around the coin. Eight circles, each of various sizes. The fourth from the center was a different color than the others. I took the coin back from Tamara and scraped my fingernail across it. It was tarnished, but it almost looked like gold.

I looked back up at Tamara. “The solar system?” I said.

“Right. And the central planet isn’t Earth. That’s Mars.”

I flopped back down on the sand. The breath had left my body entirely. “Mars?!”

Tamara snorted. “What are you acting so shocked for? You’re the one who thought it looked like the arch at Professor Gomez’s site.”

“Yeah, but… I thought I was crazy!”

“Congratulations, then—you’re as sane as I am.” She grinned like a Cheshire cat. Deimos winked over her shoulder, completing the effect.

The wind picked up, and a large wave gushed over the sand, soaking my shoes. The water was freezing, but I barely noticed.

Mars was a dead planet. There was no one here before us. Nothing but spider weeds, and weird little fish things, and underground germs. I knew that had to be true, because GSAF had done a study before they approved the planet for terraformation, to find out if the planet could sustain life or if there was anything here that could harm humans. I’d been hearing about it my whole life just from listening to Mom talk to herself while she worked. We all had to learn about this in sophomore biology class. Everyone knew this.

But what if they were wrong?

Santa torquing Maria.

Tamara got to her feet shakily, brushing the red sand off her leggings. She held out a hand to help me up, as I was none too sturdy myself.

“You know what, Isaak?” she said. “I don’t think I’m going to mind missing my weekend classes at Herschel after all.”

◦ • ◦